On our previous episode, Laurence and Carlos spoke with John Parkin about big ideas: what they are; where they come from and how to spot them. He shared how big ideas can create real impact with minimum effort.

The idea itself does the heavy lifting. However, what happens when you’re still searching for your big idea. How do you commit to action when it’s not clear?

Say hello to our new friend – the minimum loveable big idea. "Big enough to create impact, small enough to try, authentic enough to be loved." It's an idea that aligns with your hopes, dreams and intentions. It sparks curiosity and excitement, and ideally one that you're willing to commit even though it isn’t 100% clear. The feeling is strong even if the plan is patchy.

Maybe you have a minimum lovable big idea waiting to be birthed? One that has the potential to make a difference, but personal enough to be close to your heart.

Each guest for this episode has a story to tell about their own minimum loveable big ideas:

• Erin McCormack from Boston, USA – The school for inspiring leaders
• Matthieu Dardaillon from France – Effortless entrepreneurship
• Katherine Horsham from the UK – Adventures in nature for women
• Beth Derry from the UK – Teenage self-harm

Links

• Join the next Vision 20/20 cohort
• Join the conversation live
• Become a member of the Happy Startup School

Today we are exploring this mashup of ideas.

A previous Friday Fireside, we were talking to John Parkin about big ideas and where do we find big ideas?

What are big ideas?

How do they come about?

Uh, he was coming from the place of his experience in advertising and, you know, finding these ideas that kind of do a lot of the heavy lifting when you're trying to put something out into the world, in this case, products and services that you can sell.

Uh, I think we're gonna steal that idea a bit in terms of not only things that we can sell, but things that motivate people to make change, whether that's a personal level or maybe even a systemic level.

This is the big idea challenge that we have.

Because some of these big ideas take big action, which can feel overwhelming and really tiring to just think about.

It's that like at the foot of the mountain, looking at the peak, it's like, oh my God, all of this work to do.

So how do we make our first step?

And also how do we connect it to ourselves?

You know, there are big problems, big changes, big enemies in the world that we would like to confront and, and address.

But what, what, what is our work to do and how does that connect to us at a personal level?

So we're, we're gonna explore this idea and we're gonna invite some of the people who've been through our Vision 2020 program to share their stories, the big ideas, the minimal, lovable, big minimum, lovable, big ideas, the the steps that they're taking to move forward with these ideas and, and the experience.

And hopefully to connect you with this feeling like you're not alone struggling with this, or trying or doing the things you think you need to do in order to get these big ideas out there, and maybe get some thoughts and advice from, or some helpful pointers to help you move forward.

The thing I've found really fascinating working over the last three years on this program is how often we can't spot the ideas ourself.

Often it's sometimes other people going, have you thought of that?

Or that piece of your story's fascinating.

I was on a call with a lady the other day who was joining the next Tribe and she, I think even just Nicole started to question some of her ideas just by asking a couple of questions about who she wanted to work with.

And I find that fascinating is we can try and try and try and try and do this on our own, but then sometimes it just takes someone else to reflect something back to us.

And we realize actually maybe we're sitting on, as John said, a gold mine of ideas or an idea of our own that we haven't even noticed 'cause we're so close to it.

And this is one of the most important parts of our work, is doing this as a group, doing this with others, how that really helps us have a different perspective.

And, and it is interesting you touched on stories 'cause I, I received an email today.

It was like a one of Derek Sivers' posts.

I saw that about the, looking back.

The past is not true.

And it was interesting from the perspective of the stories we tell ourselves of what's possible.

Because another thing that I think we, we, we face and we hopefully try and address is this idea of who am I to tackle this big idea?

You know, what's my role in it?

Why, you know, why should the whole imposter syndrome aspect of like, you know, who am I to say these things?

And also, maybe this has been an idea that you, that you've been brewing for a long time, but you are so off course because you've just been spending time in another direction.

And the analogy that Derek Sivers shared in his post, which I found really interesting, mainly 'cause it's kind of physicsy, it's like if you had a laser pointer pointing at the moon and you just shift it by a slight minuscule degree on the moon itself, that pointer might, that dot might have moved a thousand kilometers.

And it's this idea like in the past we set ourselves in a particular direction that's just a minuscule of a degree off what we think we should do.

And then 10, 20 years later, we are totally in different place.

How do we course correct?

How do we get back to where we we need to be?

And that's an interesting question.

I hope, uh, we can try and answer Mary, because this is part of this going back to the big idea that was.

I well done for getting physics in one of these again.

Uh, it's, it's my lifelong mission now.

You know, if you spend seven years studying something, you gotta make use of it somehow.

Yeah.

Got payback.

Payback.

It wasn't wasted.

Earn on investment.

Right, so, like we said rather than us just talk about this in any kind of theoretical way and just, spout, aphorisms and, and, and sort of quotes that make us sound clever, we wanted to invite people who've been on this journey who are trying to put these ideas out into the world.

And who better than are.

Fellow travelers who've done the Vision 2020 program?

And so I'm gonna invite Beth, Katherine, Erin, and Matthieu up onto the stage.

So what I was gonna start off with was just maybe start with some little intros.

Start off by just sharing yeah, what, what is where you're based, uh, and how you would describe your work right now so that people can get a feel for who we have in the room.

I'm going to go alphabetically.

Uh.

I'll ask Beth, why don't you introduce yourself.

Where are you based?

What is your work right now?

Okay, great.

Hi everyone.

I live near Brighton, so I see quite a lot of Carlos and Laurence, lucky me and what do I do?

My day job for the last 10 years has been working with global corporates to talk about sustainability, which has given me an interesting view on the world.

My minimum, lovable big idea is nothing to do with that.

I'm developing a platform called Lovely Messy Humans.

It's about all of us learning to love all of ourselves, including the messy parts.

But starting with one topic in particular,

Hi everyone.

I am in Boston and I'm Erin McCormick.

I have been in entrepreneurship, innovation, and design for many years, and I had had my own firm A Year of Action for about 10 years and ended up taking a job with one of my main clients right at the beginning of the pandemic because my original work was going to be impacted by the pandemic, and I

have two kids in college, and so I somewhat, I took a, took a role knowing it wasn't gonna make me happy, but it was what I needed to do for my family.

And sort of, sort of struggled through for the last few years doing that and getting more and more depleted.

And had some life events that really kind of just said, I need help.

And when I, when I Vision 2020 kind of landed at my door stop and I just jumped in.

And I have never asked for help.

I always said I could do things on my own.

And it has been transformational from my journey from where I was, you know, in February, March, to how I've been able to pivot what I was doing.

I'm sort of repositioning my Year of Action firm into the School for Inspiring Leaders and I'll share more about that in the call.

So yeah, I'm Katherine.

I'm based in London, Southeast London, Shoreditch, if anyone knows London well.

And my work or my little loveable big idea is around rewilding the world through Rewilding ourselves.

And in particular, I'm interested in helping women to access adventures in nature more, and also do those on their own a bit more.

Thank you.

Happy to see you.

I'm Matthieu from France.

I'm a social entrepreneur.

Uh, I participated to the last tribe of the Vision, uh, 2020, uh, the seventh tribe.

It has been, um, uh, , deep and I think life changing experience for me.

And I'm a, so I'm a social entrepreneur wanting to improve the work and bring about positive change.

And my big idea is about effortless change making because it costs a lot of effort to, to try to improve the world.

So my big idea is, uh, is about this idea.

What I thought we'd start off with is, is this, this idea of a big idea.

I kind of link it to some of like these big questions.

What's my purpose in life?

What does, what's the meaning of my life?

And sometimes that feels, uh, that can feel like a impenetrable question.

I thought I'd go round and just share or get each of you to share some thoughts about how you've, in the past, thought about thinking about these big ideas and, and what may have got in your way of finding one or even pursuing one if you had found it.

I didn't even try to find a big idea.

During Vision 2020.

I just let it all go in.

I knew it wasn't gonna happen during the program, but, and I knew that the idea would find me, so I just wanted to let it all sit there until that time is right.

So, I finished last summer.

I then went to Scotland, spent some days in nature, stayed on my own for a few days on purpose.

I went to summer, Summercamp and then I realized what the big idea was.

I have to challenge the word lovable because I didn't love it at all.

I was not happy.

I was in a workshop about books and I wasn't really engaging with it, but I saw someone else's book title that they drew and it was very personal and I thought, what would mind be?

And then I realized it was this whole topic of self-harm that is rife now among teenagers in the UK.

And I did it.

And I have learned so, so much since then.

And I'm not afraid, afraid to talk about scary things and science.

So I knew that I needed to do something about that.

But yeah, I didn't love it.

And just on that, because it felt like this was, this was something you had already, it was you, you were carrying, it wasn't necessarily the big idea at the time.

So prior to this, you know, you said you weren't even looking for big ideas from Vision 2020.

Did you have any experience or thoughts of what we call a big idea or a mission or a purpose?

So I knew I wasn't doing what I am meant to be doing.

You know, something that's authentically me.

The sustainability work I do, it pays the mortgage is great, but there was more.

And I knew that the reason I wasn't doing that is 'cause I still had too much fear around showing up needed to get my, to know myself better.

There were like lots of layers that were in the way and I needed to like one by one address those and then it would happen.

And now it's happening.

I, you know, it's evolution isn't it?

I think like we need to evolve as individuals and then the stuff happens.

But that needed intention from me and doing Vision 2020 with part of that intention.

And then doing some public speaking work because I was terrified of that.

And then actic, the, the next thing, the kind of imposter, who am I to talk about this?

I'm not a therapist.

And yeah.

Mm-Hmm.

So you, it is a big, scary idea rather than lovable.

Yeah.

Yeah.

With a lot of emotion attached to it.

And I also needed to work through that and see that I still was carrying some shame, and in connecting with that, I could then feel the shame that all of these other people are feeling, and that's part of the problem with how we talk about it.

So yeah, there was a lot of work I needed to do to, uh, believe in that big idea and commit to actually doing it.

I'm gonna pass on to Erin.

Yeah, I was thinking, you know, with a lot of work that I've had in, in with entrepreneurs, I found people think, oh, they're gonna just magically have this idea.

And then they often fall in love with an idea and sort of flipping that to say, really, why are you doing this?

And fall in love with solutions.

Because those may change always going towards that.

The idea may change, okay, I'm gonna try this, I'm gonna try that.

But the solution is strong, right?

And so the other piece is sort of what comes easily, kind of what Matthew helped me look at as well, what's effortless, you know?

So I loved working with women.

I loved face-to-face presentations.

Uh, I loved all these things and I thought, well, I could just do more of that.

Or, you know.

One thing that came up during the program, everyone kept saying, oh, you inspired me.

You inspired me.

And I looked back a lot of my testimonials and that, that word was almost in every, every testimonial, but I hadn't seen it for myself.

And so I sort of took that step back and said, well, what if I just inspired people?

I love it.

I have fun with it?

Why don't I look at that as an idea and then start prototyping?

I put it out there, start saying those little drips, right?

You don't have to, you don't have to have it all done.

You sort of test the waters.

And I keep getting a lot of traction and then get bigger and bigger.

And as Beth's saying too, it's pushing that fear away.

Well, as I've been in this other role, I've, I had lost more confidence in that other side of myself and, and.

The content challenge, and I haven't, I've wrote a book, but I haven't written in three years, right?

So just putting out blog posts now, it's like, oh, I, I remember how to write, right?

So it's those little steps.

It's those pointing yourself to what's what you're ultimately trying to do for the solution.

And your path there may change a bit, but just keep taking actions and it quiets that, that fear and helps you to, to learn from your actions.

This, uh, building of confidence and I also hear this kind of building of power claim of you, like this agency feels like a very helpful segue to Katherine.

Well, if I go way, way back to when I left university, it was in the financial crisis 2009 or eight.

And I kind of made a commitment then that I knew I wanted to do work that was gonna leave the world better than what I found it.

So I guess I've had a kind of connection with impact for a really, really long time.

But my version of what that looked like was basically going and working in charities or social enterprises and like working your way up.

You know, the more senior you are, the more kind of scope that you might have to launch new projects and have greater impact, et cetera.

And as I started to do that, uh, I was shocked to find I didn't like it, and I actually burned out in the process.

So I guess my thing around.

The big idea is actually realizing I need to figure out what's the big idea For me as opposed to, uh, this idea in the world that, that we kind of look towards, you know, we look towards influencers or people we kind of revere as these kind of fantastic entrepreneurial people.

And also I currently work in, uh, entrepreneurship department at university and I have an operations role.

So my purpose is to help other people be entrepreneurial and have the big ideas.

And part of the Vision 2020 tribe is realizing that I can do this too.

I don't have to be in the background facilitating everyone else.

Actually, I can think about what's

this big idea for me?

Um, and in terms of, kind of, the connection between thinking about big ideas.

I'm a big fan of shower brainstorming.

I find that is a fantastic place to come up with ideas.

But I committed to do a trip which I've always wanted to do at the same time as doing the program.

And I initially thought, oh, is this a great idea because I'm doing this 20 week thing.

You know, it's really fantastic and I wanna be as, as part of it as possible.

But I also really wanted to walk the Pembrokeshire coast path in Wales this year.

And actually, uh, that was the seed for everything I created on the program.

So I think there’s something about doing what you wanna do and just seeing what happens and you'll find a way to make a connection.

And I'm kind of pleasantly surprised it was that really that's helped me to figure out what's this big idea for me and what's my work to do.

A conversation I had with Scott, who is in our, who is in our group, Katherine, he talked about scaffolding and how the program is the scaffolding around which in each of individual participant will build.

But that building is theirs to do.

You know, we can't give them the idea.

We can't tell them, just do this, this, and this, and suddenly the idea appears.

There's an element of emergence and action around a structure.

And so.

I love the fact that it emerged, like, oh, this is potentially the big idea, but that wasn't, we didn't give it to you that was yours already.

And you just used the, the, the structure of the, the program, but also the people around you to, to move that forward.

So,

And there's something there.

I think particularly both Beth and Katherine, your stories about space, it feels like giving yourself the space to not force it too much.

And, and that adding a, a level of effortlessness to it, rather than.

Oh, good segue.

You know, look for the segues.

That's your cue.

They're a bit more about your big idea journey.

So.

I think I, I have always been connected to my, uh, vocation or mission because I started quite early as a student.

And I started a social enterprise in France called Ticket for Change.

And this the mission is to help people find their talents and become change makers.

But, but after 10, 10 years of, uh, lots of actions, uh, I felt I needed uh, to step back and open a one year regenerative break.

And one of the first thing I, I did at the beginning of this break was to, to participate in the, in the Vision 20 program.

Because I felt I needed space to reconnect to myself.

So the question is how, how to find your big idea or how do you know you, you are connected to your big idea.

And, and I think it's very interesting because I think the more you, you, you are looking for it maybe, uh, harder it, it become to find it.

But you have to be proactive.

So I think it, it comes to you, it, at, at one point it become an, an evidence, it comes to you.

Uh, like this idea, I really love it so much that maybe it's my big idea.

You don't say it's my big idea maybe, but you say, I love this idea and I wanna, uh, to do something about it.

So you have to be proactive, but you cannot find it intellectually.

That's one thing.

Uh, another thing I think is you.

When you find your big idea, it, it really Connects to yourself.

You feel, you feel aligned, but you need others to help you find this, because others help you to, to show you where your value is.

And that's why the, the tribe in the program is very helpful because you have the, the feedbacks of others who, who they give you a lot of energy and, and you see when you are on the good track.

And I think also, uh, for me, effortless change making it, it sounds like a big idea for me because it, it gives me energy.

It's inspiring to me.

And, uh, even if, I don't know what will happen with this, I know it's the, it's the right direction.

Sounds like trusting in the feeling.

Is that right?

Yeah.

I've mentioned the Rick Rubin book a few times, probably to all of you, probably sick about hearing a, but he talks a bit about that in that book.

The Creative Act, he talks about following the feeling, following the excitement, and just trusting in that feeling that that's, that's a good thing for you rather than trying to rationalize any idea.

Yeah, there's lots of little threads there.

I was gonna say there, there's, there is the, uh, I was gonna say engaging.

I was gonna say again, comfortable with the unknown.

I'm not sure if that's a helpful way of phrasing it.

There's engaging with the unknown, not running away from it.

There's, there's a phrase that someone shared with me in the program.

It's just like, be stepping on the edge and not stepping, stepping close to the edge and not stepping back.

You know, you've got this expanse in front of you.

It can be very scary to just move forward because you don't know where it leads.

So there's this element of trust.

The other, the other thing there I found interesting, this idea of feedback, because this thing about minimal level, this minimal lovable bit of this phrase for me comes from a lot of the Lean Startup stuff that we would do as an agency when we were building businesses.

And this Idea of like always learning and learning through feedback, learning through engaging with the world and with people.

And so I wanted to just touch a little bit on this idea of safety and feedback.

' cause one of the challenges I think that can happen with us is we have this idea that we love, and particularly when it's a seed and we share it with particular people, there's a chance that they'll just stamp on it.

And so, yeah, there's, there's, we need to be strong and resilient about ideas, but at the same time, some ideas are so delicate at the beginning that it can be scary to share them.

And so maybe just go round the group, group again, just your sense of what it means to get feedback and what kind of feedback is important when you're still trying to find that big idea.

Hold onto it.

Beth, what's your, what are your thoughts about this?

Yeah, I think you are right about being a bit discerning about the feedback that you listen to.

So I find feedback so helpful, and when it's from the right people, I want it all.

But there are other people that I'm just not interested because this isn't for them.

So I, I talked to a friend's daughter a lot who's going through.

I went through and got her feedback, one of my ideas for a name, she said it was absolutely horrible.

And I, you know, that kind of honest feedback was so useful.

And then I also really loved doing tiny experiments.

So my first kind of webinar talk I did was really tiny, and I didn't let my ego get in the way.

I needed it to be that tiny to feel safe doing it.

Mm-Hmm.

The feedback was great.

Second one I got some of the feed.

The one person said I could listen to Beth speak all day.

I need to hear that because I haven't done this stuff before.

Mm-Hmm.

So these like little experiments, they can be free or donations.

I, I know we're not meant to do free stuff, but for me the value in them is amazing because you get that, you, and you start being that person based on the feedback you're getting.

So, yeah.

But being discerning about it,

Were you discerning about who you shared it with then rather than,

yes, because I have had, I've had ideas in the past that I listened too much to other people and then just didn't do them, and I, I shouldn't have done that, so I'm not doing that anymore.

I've put down some boundaries around whose feedback I want and who I don't.

Because often people's feedback comes from fear as well, when it's that the un useful feedback is often coming from their fear.

And they don't need other people's fear to be getting in my way.

'cause it's scary enough already.

Got enough of your own.

Yeah.

That, that was a great segue, Beth, because that was, I was thinking the same thing as far as understanding where that feedback is coming from.

Often if you share it often with, you know, your family or people who are impacted by that, they're bringing their own fears and motives to the table saying, well, what if we can't pay the mortgage or what if, you know, what if, what if, versus the feedback I got from my tribe that 2020 tribe was, was phenomenal, right?

Because they're, they're coming from a clear perspective.

I had an art professor who had a sign on the wall that said, have you stepped back from your painting lately?

And it was so great.

Mm-Hmm.

Because you're so close to it, you might be painting the nose in the wrong place, right?

And so once you step back, you can see things.

And so getting feedback from people who don't have their own motive, but they're truly trying to give feedback positive and negative, right?

So people pushed me to say, let go of the year of action brand.

It's, that's a diff, you know, and they kept pushing me to start opening my eyes to a different path with my best interest at heart.

And so, as you're saying, Beth, finding those people who truly want you to succeed and you, and you want that positive and negative and constructive, you want that feedback in this beautifully safe space.

Hmm.

' Erin: Cause you only learn by trying and you only, you know, try with, you know, getting past that fear.

So it's hugely valuable but making sure you're not letting others' fears get in your way.

There's something there about not having, not being so attached to the outcome of you changing a role or changing a brand or changing identity as well.

I dunno if you've found that, but if people are close to you, often they've got you in a set, you know, they pigeonholed you in a certain area.

And so that, to think of you stepping out of that, maybe they find scary for them, but also maybe they fear for you that that's a, a risky move.

Yes.

How about you Katherine?

Well, I think it's really interesting to think about like in the day job and in the tribe.

Because in the day job I'm like, feedback, let's do it.

Let's think about it.

Let's put it out there, let's hear all the bad stuff, and know that's where the most potential for growth is.

When it comes to something that's so personal to you, there's sort of instinctive kind of contraction.

And I think what's really fantastic about Vision 2020 is the kind of guided feedback process, you know.

So you start and you meet one person, then you have your buddy group, and you kind of get used to sharing feedback there.

Then you have the sort of wider tribe, then you kind of move on to LinkedIn.

So I feel like the whole program is structured in a way that helps you practice hearing and coping with feedback.

And although at points I found it really challenging, like particularly this, the space I'm in of, of thinking about women and feminism and how that intersects with the climate crisis, you know there, there are lots of different opinions and, on different scales of, you know,, is this a controversial opinion or not?

And it's very personal to me and my journey.

So all of that together means it's quite easy probably for someone to say something that I kind of go, Ooh, you know, I'm not kind of sure how I feel about that each time that's happened and I've processed that in a safe space of the Vision 2020 tribe, it's only either helped

me to refine what I really think and feel and what I'm passionate about or what is my work to do, or help me to become a bit more resilient.

And the, the LinkedIn challenge, yeah, there were a couple of comments that threw me some days.

I was kind of thinking, I'm barking up the wrong tree, there's need for what I'm interested in.

And then every time that happened, I would have like an interaction with someone who would sort of quietly say to me, I'm so glad that you posted that because this is what I've been thinking and I just haven't had anyone to talk to about it.

Or you know, I genuinely was gonna go on Hinge and find the man to go walking with me because I didn't know what else to do until I saw your post.

And I was just like, that's the, that's the feedback that, uh, I'm, I'm here for.

And just to kind of, yeah, keep it in check of how much you listen to maybe the bits are challenging, but that they're good.

But also like how you make space to hear the good stuff because we have this negativity bias and we need to amplify the good stuff.

How about you, Matthieu?

First, uh, feedback is a gift.

Uh, so, but the, the question is, uh, from whom?

As as, as it has been said.

So, I think it's very important to listen to feedbacks from people who can really understand me.

It can be the future clients, the future beneficiaries of my, uh, offer, or it can be people on the same journey, but people who really can connect to, to the topic, I think.

And the tribe feedback during the program, they were very, very, uh, powerful and, uh, it was amazing to, to get all this feedback.

Very different people.

And also I think I tried to listen to the energy that is created in the feedback.

The, the, the energy of the people giving the feedback, uh, is it intellectual, an intellectual feedback or, uh, or something else?

And, and also the, the energy it gives to me or not, uh, because these are some interesting, uh, things about the topic, uh, we are talking about.

And af after that, among all the feedbacks, uh, I choose, uh, what I want to keep, uh, and I, uh, and I build on this.

There's that, that level of openness to accept the feedback, and again, being discerning about who you're talking to.

But also here, this discerning discernment as well around, okay, which of these bits of feedback can I use, can I work with, can I then action on.

And I wanted to like, yeah, this last bit is really talking about action, taking that step, putting something together and, and in this minimal lovable part of the, the phrase Comes from our idea of the minimal lovable product.

We labor this analogy of the cupcake versus the wedding cake.

Like the smallest version of the biggest, the big vision that we can not only just test.

'Cause there's this, there's a lot of this idea about testing ideas and making sure that they're validated as assumptions.

But I also feel there's something around, and I think Beth alluded to this, building our confidence, building our relationship to the work at hand.

And one of the other phrases that we like to use is this idea of product founder fit.

And in the Startup world, they talk about problem, solution fit.

Is this a solution actually that's gonna solve a problem, a product market fit, is this something that's gonna make money?

But not enough about am I, and this again, the work to do, do I actually love this idea?

Is this something that I want to commit to, even if I don't have the clarity or the capability to execute on it right now?

So for those of you out there listening or watching live who don't know where to start or feel like you have to go big or go home, I'd love to hear you, the thoughts from each of you about how you tackle that challenge of like, there's a big idea, it's a really important thing to do,

but where do I start and how do I start in a way that is good enough for now and safe enough to try quoting from our wonderful friend Lana?

I would say I started as small as possible having never created a training given a talk online.

So I came up with a webinar, one hour, I think it was I, to keep it a secret saying anyone would come.

So I didn't market it much at all.

I put it on Eventbrite and I think I ended up with three people I know who work in related professions and three strangers and it was the best thing I could have done.

It was such a safe, dip my toe in, I learnt loads, started to be the sort of person that does that sort of thing.

And from that I then did nothing and then got asked to run a training through a youth charity for 25 adults who work with young people, paid.

And that was just from doing that one tiny webinar.

So I'm all in for these experiments.

I've just done one on another topic around anger and like we called it a prototype and I love that.

Like actually being honest to people.

This is a prototype.

We really want you to be there and please give us so much honest feedback.

Mm-Hmm.

So for me it needs to be tiny because that feels safe at this stage and then you go from there.

Yeah, I, I agree as well.

And it gives you sort of a safety net.

Calling it a pilot or I'm testing or I'm trying to get feedback.

And it's in little steps.

So part of what I was doing this morning, I was looking through some of my notes from how things evolved, where, what I was thinking and what I was trying to do.

And as you know, what made me excited, what was, what was the work I wanted to work on?

And I ended up reaching back out to a number of my students to just connect and say, Hey, I'm gonna gonna be trying something new.

I would love to get some feedback when it's ready.

And everybody's saying, yes, we're ready, and to, I had iterations of a new landing page.

Again, not going too far, but just enough to kind of say, Hey, this is what I'm thinking, right?

You can talk about it, but unless you can show somebody, they might be thinking something different.

So put something out there that, that is real, that people can react to.

And then for me, my sort of graduation present was hitting publish, right?

So I, I published a new landing page this week.

And now the next step is, okay, go back to students who, who know me and who know what I do, and get their input about, Hey, what do you think about this?

And I know they will give real feedback and it's safe.

And it's taking those, those steps.

But you have to have something to show, just something simple.

It can be one page, it can be a flyer.

But put, put your ideas down.

And then you can help get feedback to refine it.

But you, I've refined mine many times over these few weeks to, and it'll continue to iterate, but you have to keep acting, assessing, and adjusting.

And in small steps.

It doesn't just magically happen on its own.

It's taking those steps.

What about you, Katherine?

What are the, what are the small steps for you?

I think, I love the phrase start where you are, And I think that's what this program does so beautifully, is it starts with, you know, what you'd love to happen in your life.

And one of the things I wrote was I'd love it if I could adventure in nature more.

And not even connecting that to the fact that I was about to go and do a, a sort of, you know, 300 kilometer, uh, adventure in nature.

And see there's something really freeing about just starting from your personal experience.

So I went to do this thing and it was, it was from that, that I then thought, actually, why, why is it taken till I'm 35 years old for me to do this thing that's brought me so much in terms of being able to be okay with solitude, to reconnect with my purpose to be, you know, to have more gratitude to other people who helped me along that journey?

And a sense that from there I could then think, oh, here's what I've learned.

What do I wanna do about it?

And I, and I kind of felt a sense of personal injustice that I'd not done this before.

And then I started to get curious about is this something that maybe other people, and I guess particularly women may for me from like a safety and a confidence perspective, are kind of missing out on these opportunities to be alone in nature and to develop themselves and to get clarity and, and meaning?

And then from there, I then kind of asked other people in the tribe, and it turns out lots of people are very passionate about Avengers in nature, but a little bit unsure about the solo bit.

And the fact that I just done this trip has given me blueprint that if, if all I did just share what I did with other people, that is like the most basic thing that I could do.

And obviously I've kind of taken that a step further and thought, you know, about the Rewilding Out Loud collective, which is to bring women together to build their confidence to work towards solo adventures in nature.

So yeah, just this kind of sense of, I've heard it called the lily pad theory as well.

You just kind of do something you see where you're, you just look, look at which lily pad you're gonna jump to.

And yeah, I think starting with yourself, that's why I'm really keen about connecting rewilding the world to rewilding ourselves because we're not gonna get to the world if we don't start with ourselves.

So I think that's my kind of main thought about how to keep it minimum

Love pad image.

Something calming about it as well as something kind of practical.

And yeah,

it's chill.

It's chill.

You just kind of see which one you're gonna step over to

As long as you've got good balance.

How about you Matthieu?

So today I don't have a specific solution to propose.

I'm still exploring, uh, and I'm dedicating one full year to explore this idea of effortless change making.

But, uh, I'm doing small steps to be.

The program and some discussions with Laurence, uh, really helped me to, to define my mantra.

The mantra is one thing of the program and my mantra is uh, playful leverage.

So I'm doing things that are post playful and that can create leverage.

So I'm trying to, I'm doing some playful prototyping and I've began, I, I share my learnings on LinkedIn because it's effortless for me.

So I've, I've not created a podcast or news newsletter or something else because I already had a, a LinkedIn, uh, community.

So it effortless for me to, to, to share my, uh, ideas and, uh, and I can easily test and refine, uh, these ideas.

And I, this is my open laboratory.

I share my learnings and I get a lot of feedbacks.

So it's very, um.

helpful for me also.

And also I try to prototype a new lifestyle, uh, with new habits in my schedule.

Thanks to the program, I have a clear visualization of what should be my life in five years, uh, with new habits and, uh, new schedule with, for example, some business meetings in the morning, uh, and some creative space in the afternoon, with no meeting, no phone, uh, no phone load, uh, in my, uh, my studio, creative studio, et cetera.

But I said to myself, so what if I, I started today?

Uh, try to do it today, this new schedule?

So I, I try to implement it now, uh, this new change making lifestyle, uh, and embody a new way of doing things.

Thank you, mate.

It, it reminds me of the phrase, Laurence, you say like, what, what would it look like if it were easy?

And I think that for many of us who are starting a new thing, that going from zero to one seems like such a massive leap.

Just to take action.

So many things we need to know and be aware of or be able to do in order to take that first step, that it becomes a hard step.

And I love this idea of playful leverage in terms of how we shift the energy around that first step from being something that is less about climbing up but just sliding into it like a water slide.

So sometimes you're sliding down and you trip up and you hurt your ankle and it isn't pleasant.

And so what I wanted to just touch on, uh, to end on is this idea we, we will face setbacks.

And my fear for many people trying to do this on their own is the first setback ends up being the last setback.

'cause they just don't try anymore.

And so I'd love to hear from each of you how you are managing coping, have coped with the setbacks, and what, what will you suggest to others to help them keep going?

Well, it's funny to, you know, this, this is new.

I'm just putting this out in the world and just, you know, a small setback, if you will, right?

So I was, I had the LinkedIn challenge every day.

I was getting, you know, good feedback on things I was writing.

And then when I kind of announced what I was doing, I got the least amount of feedback and I thought, oh man, I was expecting more.

And then yesterday I met someone and, and told them in real life what I was doing and got incredible feedback.

And we had some, some great ideas, right?

So it's about, it's not always, it's not gonna be, it's not gonna be easy, right?

But it's, it's about, okay, well now I know, well, I could, I could try this, or I could make it simpler.

As, as I'm getting more clarity, oh, that will help improve my messaging.

So you're gonna have bumps, or it's a squiggly line, not a straight line, right?

So, I said, okay, well do another post and keep posting and try some different messages and learn from what works.

So it's, it's, there's always, every day there's going to be something.

And as Bets was saying it, you choose how you're going to look at that.

Like, oh wow, okay, that gave me more insight.

Next time I'll do this.

So it's, I think it's just every day you're choosing.

Okay, where am I gonna go today?

And what did I learn yesterday?

And it's, it's a journey and, and it's about staying on the path, reminding yourself of your why when, you know, when you get rejections, no one wants something, you're like, okay, well, what can I change?

And why am I doing this?

I think setback, well, it feels like a setback when it doesn't go how I imagined.

And I think key, there's two things I would say, one is I need to give myself time to move through that process.

So quite often when it's happening, I'm also trying to deal with it.

And I know that maybe after a day I'll be able to look at it more objectively and, and look at it in a holistic way.

I think one thing that's really helped me is just having a group of humans, IE the buddy group, to just get all those thoughts that you're literally thinking when it happens just out to some people or just out loud.

And I guess you, you have to feel safe to do that and, and to have trust that people are not gonna judge you for those maybe thoughts when you're not at your best.

I think if you don't have that, I find free writing really helpful where you just literally just start writing 10 minutes and just get it all out of your head and then you'll free yourself up.

Maybe some thought challenging or to find some kind of other ways of, of, of looking at it.

Yeah, I think just allowing myself to go through the, the cycle of, of the thoughts and everything, uh, helps me.

I need to build more time in for that.

Because you know, you're not gonna be able to avoid that.

And I know it's not gonna be the last step back because two days later I'm like, I wanna do more of that thing.

Like the LinkedIn Challenger.

I thought I was LinkedIn out two days later.

I was like, Ooh, this make a really good LinkedIn.

So like, see where your energy is a few days later.

I think things are always really positive.

So I try to find something positive in every steps, uh, in the, in the journey.

So if it works, uh, great, I can continue and build on it.

And if it’s a setback, maybe it's an invitation to refine something to make it easier, to make it, uh, more effortless.

And, and it also has because I think, I know I can close this door.

It's not this solution, it's not this way.

I can open many other doors, i, I can try new things.

But it helps me because it, it helps me to focus also.

And I think also it's important to, to give time, uh, because it's not when you only try once that you know if it works or not.

Uh, maybe to try a few times to sense if it's, if it works or not.

We're gonna draw to a close now.

Uh, so I'll let you all drift off, but before we let you go, and then Laurence and I maybe have some final thoughts.

I'll give you an opportunity just to share anything that you'd like, uh, to share as parting words.

Bearing in mind there's someone out there wanting to shift what they're doing, they, they're not on the path, they feel there's a big idea that's out there, or they're struggling with moving forward with this big idea.

Any final words for that person?

Mine would be to play with the tiny experiments, make sure they feel safe, and make sure they are fun.

I'll share what my mantra was to get me started is it's time.

So what are you waiting for?

This no magic someday, it's today.

So do something little today.

And also ask yourself, well, what if, well, what if it all worked?

What if I could do this?

I renegotiated a contract.

I'm working three days a week, and I asked for, and got the month of August off with pay, right?.

That seemed unbel.

That seemed impossible, right?

So what if and it's time.

Don't feel that you need to start a business.

I think that was one of my barriers coming into this course.

I remember speaking to Laurence, like, I, I, I don't think I wanna start a business, so I don't think I can, I can join in.

Yet, you know, big idea doesn't mean, you know, employing those people, et cetera.

And yeah, I think I just come back to start where you are.

Just take time for yourself, honor yourself, and the fact that you deserve to have your creative needs met and create time for yourself to, to do the work, however that works for you.

I would say make it playful.

Maybe ask less questions and try by some, by something that gives you energy that that is fun, uh, to you.

And that is, uh, that gives you energy that is playful and the rest will, uh, will come.

Okay.

Well on, on that now, I'm, uh, I will let you all go and thank you very much for your time.

Yeah, thank you guys.

Really appreciate it,

Laurence and I'll, we'll close off.

I think the thing, key thing feels like there's definitely how to work through the fear.

'Cause I think everyone, I mean, Beth highlighted it with her idea, you know, it sounded like not the idea that she would've chosen to pursue, not the easiest idea, maybe not effortless, but found the courage to pursue it.

And I think the other ones, there was definitely elements of fear with all the stories.

But just this idea of lowering the bar of either expectation of what it becomes, does it become a business, you know?

Trying to project too far in the future of, is it a big idea?

Is it my life purpose?

Is it become a business where I have to employ loads of people?

To actually, like what Katherine said about just start where you are.

You know, just starting with the pad on and looking ahead to the next one and following the feeling really, I think is all we can do.

Follow the feeling of either this feels playful or exciting or different, or scratches a need or fulfills a need that I don't yet fulfill, or it's just sparking my curiosity about, yeah, there's something that I'm really passionate about or curious about, and that's my next step.

So I don't think we can ever know if it's a big idea.

It feels to me just by sharing and getting feedback, hopefully in a safe space, I think that's the key thing as well.

Not just putting it out there and.

For validation, but actually just being very careful about who we share it with, them who share we share it with and how we share it.

Uh, and ideally giving them something to work with, not just sort of blurbing it out, you know, just a little invitation that at least shows that we've thought about this.

Even if it's just a simple one page flyer or webpage.

Thingify those ideas.

Exactly.

And it could be just a post.

I mean, we've seen people in the program just share a LinkedIn post.

It doesn't have to be an elaborate, well designed solution with a shiny logo.

It's really just opening your heart a bit and sharing it with some people that you think might, might resonate with.

I think maybe that's one of the, the challenges that people face is everything's stuck in their head and it won't evolve in the way that will be of help or of use to others as well as yourself, unless it is out in the world in some form or the other where there's a conversation or a post, a thing that you've just created, a prototype.

Uh, what what I wanted to end on was, I, I quite, I was taken by Erin's two questions, what if, and if not now, when?

And I think for those of you who've been sitting on a big idea or sitting on the discomfort of not having a big idea what if?

And if you're not doing it, what, if not now when?

So chew on that one.

Okay.

Thank you everyone.

For those of you who are listening live, and for those of you listening to the recording, I hope you've, uh, got something useful and actionable from this.

Shameless plug, I think time.

We're looking to talk to people for this next tribe.

So if you like the sound of working with a small group, working with us and have an idea you wanna pursue or think there's a big idea out there for you, then we'd love to talk.

vision.happystartups.co if anyone's interested, just uh, fill out the form, we'll get back to you because yeah, we're already filling out the next tribe.

So yeah, there's a whole world of knowledge and wisdom out there for everyone.

And also we're building this alumni network now.

We've got 140-odd people who've been through this program over the last three and a half years, so we're looking at ways to connect people beyond the program.

Yeah, it's an ongoing journey, uh, and it's best not to do on your own.